This invention relates to a reader for a meter, and more specifically, although not exclusively, to a hand-held reader for a utility meter, particularly a water meter.
A wide variety of utility meters are known for measuring the supply of utilities, for example, gas, water and electricity. The measurement of utility supply allows each consumer to be charged according to the level of their use of the supply and discourages wasting of natural resources.
Although utility meters are, in general, provided with a display for displaying the level of utility consumption, the meters may often be located in inaccessible places. To facilitate the ease of reading the meter there is often a remote reading device provided. This may be a pad coupled to the meter through a wire link, or alternatively a radio frequency (RF) module. For a pad, the meter is read by electromagnetic inductive coupling through the pad with a reader device (in close proximity to the pad). For an RF module, the meter is read using radio frequency transmission (usually having a maximum range of about 90-400 meters) to transmit the utility usage data to a reader device having a suitable RF module.
Numerous utility meters are commercially available, and each may be provided with either a pad or an RF module for remote reading. In addition, the form of the data transmitted, specifically the data communication protocols, varies with each meter. This makes it difficult to provide a reading device which is able to read all the different possible meter types.
It is an object of the present invention to seek to mitigate these disadvantages.
According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for reading a meter, comprising means for receiving data by radio frequency transmission from the meter, and means for, inductively receiving data from the meter.
The apparatus may include an algorithm to determine the form of the incoming data from the initial portion of an incoming data stream. This scheme of meter reading is described in GB 2 277 392, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Once the form of the incoming data has been recognised then the data can be successfully received.
Prior art apparatus has employed a list of possible protocols for the data. The incoming data is examined using sequential trial reading, progressing through the list after each failure to recognise the data. This method may involve receiving the same data four or five times before it is correctly decoded. The use of the algorithm described above results in a faster read time for each meter, since the data protocols are determined from the initial portion of incoming data.
The algorithm may conveniently compare the first ten bits of an incoming data stream with a stored list of known protocols.
The meter may be a utility meter, such as a water meter.